BOTANY. 345 



broad, pinnatifid, supported on long erect foot-stalks, 

 emerging from the soil. Flowers and fruit borne in 

 clusters on the summit of a tall fluted scape. Average 

 height of the plant, two feet. The flowers are small, 

 green, and interspersed with long filamentous appen- 

 dages and ovoid bractea. The fruit is a green berry, 

 elegantly fluted on its surface ; it contains many yellow 

 striated seeds, lodged in three cells. The root is large, 

 and in colour and form bears a close resemblance to a 

 " new potatoe f the Society Islanders obtain from it a 

 large quantity of very pure starch, or arrow-root, which 

 is not only one of their most valuable staple commodi- 

 ties for exportation, but is also their favourite food. 

 The same people manufacture very neat hats and bon- 

 nets from the straw of the scape of this plant. The 

 scraped root applied to the diseased skin, is a native 

 remedy for elephantiasis. 



Society Isles ; native name pia. Sandwich Group, 

 Marquesas, Timor. 



Corypha umbraculifera. Fan Palm. This palm, so 

 truly oriental in its appearance, does not obtain at any 

 of the Polynesian islands we visited, excepting Santa 

 Christina, Marquesas ; where there are several topes or 

 groves of the species growing in the interior of the 

 valleys. The natives call it vahana. It resembles the 

 common Fan Palm, or Palmyra, of the East Indies, 

 and attains the height of thirty-five feet. The trunk is 

 slender, has a white bark, and bears at its summit a 

 tuft of broad fan-shaped leaves, from the base of which 

 hang clusters of small globular nuts. The dried leaves 

 have uniformly a yellow colour ; they are applied by 



stamens to each petal ;) but all the examples I obtained had flowers with 

 only six stamens and one pistil. 



